


Sex and Sunsets

by TWDObsessive



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: (Don't worry- it's not a real last kiss. Just the thought of a last kiss), A Darnise Bro-fic, Angst, Daryl hates Jesus, Emotions, Falling In Love, Feels, First Kiss, Fix-It, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Last Kiss, M/M, No particular reason why, Pining, Pining!Daryl, Rickyl Writers' Group, Rickyl Writers' Group Bingo 2016, The infamous couch scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-01
Updated: 2016-03-01
Packaged: 2018-05-24 02:45:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,031
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6138661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TWDObsessive/pseuds/TWDObsessive
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Daryl goes to his new friend, Denise, for some advise and her words are enough to make Daryl finally act.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sex and Sunsets

**Author's Note:**

> Written because I ship the Denise and Daryl bromance. I want them to be new best friends!
> 
> Unbeta'd

Daryl knocked on the doctor’s door and stood back to wait for her to answer. He and Rick hit the jackpot- an abandoned shopping cart in a Sam’s Club parking lot with an entire case of root beer. Daryl had six of them tucked away in his backpack in case Tara answered the door. He chewed a nail as he waited, looking up and down the peaceful Alexandria streets.

Denise opened the door cautiously, probably expecting someone injured. “Daryl? Everything ok?” she asked. 

Daryl nodded. “Yeah. Got that thing,” he muttered.

Denise smiled and opened the door wide, standing aside to let him in. 

“She here?” he asked as he put his backpack down on the hall floor and unzipped it. 

“No. Out with Heath getting ready for that run. You can… you can bring it into the kitchen. You want a bite to eat?” she asked as Daryl looked her suspiciously, which was pretty much the way he looked at everybody, and then grabbed the bag and followed her, placing it on the counter as he glanced around the spotless kitchen. 

“I... we have some food. I mean… like nothing special. Not a lot. I mean, not that it’s not a lot. It’s some. Like plenty enough to share. I didn’t mean, like we don’t have a lot and I don’t want you to have any, I just meant-”

Daryl waved his hands at her nervous chatter. “Got it man,” he said. He pulled out the root beers and put them one at a time on the clean island. Well, it _was_ clean, it now had dirt smudges from his bag and his forearms. 

 

Denise picked one of the root beers up and looked at it like it was a rare sapphire ring. “Oh my God. This is so great. I mean.. I didn’t want you to go out of your way or anything. It wasn’t-”

“You got any more of those shitty Omega 3 cookies?” Daryl asked, sparing her from her nervous babble. He didn’t think he’d ever meet someone more awkward than he was. Denise may have him tied. 

“Yeah! Did you like them?” She asked as she opened a tupperware container and offered him one. 

“Naw. Taste’s like shit. Kept my stomach from growlin’ though.” He took a bite and Denise sat on one of the barstools at the island and took a bite of one herself. It still tasted like shit, but Daryl didn’t know where else to go. Normally at this time, late in the afternoon after his supply run with Rick was done, he’d go back to the home he shared with Michonne, Carl, Judith and Rick. But now? He wanted to give them their privacy. Rick probably wanted that. Things had just started with Michonne a week ago, so they probably wanted to grab all the private time they could. At least Daryl thought it had only been a week. He found out when everyone else did, including fucking Jesus. Rick and Michonne half-dressed in the upstairs hall and reeking of sex.

Daryl hadn’t anticipated the emotions that came with the revelation. At first he felt hurt that Rick hadn’t mentioned it. They were brothers. Best friends. There wasn’t much good in this world and if something good was happening for Rick, then why wouldn’t he tell Daryl about it? He never mentioned having the hots for Michonne. Not once. Never flirted with her. Not that Daryl could tell anyway, not that he was an expert on matters like that.

It wasn’t until that night, Daryl laying in bed alone, that he realized maybe his heart ached from more than just feeling left out of Rick’s happy news. Daryl chewed the dry cookie and forced it down with a hard swallow. He choked a little on the dry crumbs caught in his throat and Denise snapped out of her daze. 

“Oh jeez. Oh, I’m sorry. Do you want a pop… I mean a soda?” 

Daryl shook his head, still coughing and walked to the sink, turning the faucet on and drinking straight from it. He finally stopped coughing and gasping. 

“You ok?” Denise asked, nervously adjusting her glasses.

“Least my roadkill ain’t that damn dry,” he grumbled, his voice rough but his words playful.

Denise laughed and broke her cookie in half and looked at it. “It’s not the greatest, is it?” she asked.

“Had worse,” Daryl said. He looked around again, feeling awkward. Taking stock stock of the kitchen and looking for conversation so he wouldn’t have to leave.

“Is something on your mind, Daryl?” She asked leaning against the counter, looking like she really cared. Like she really sensed that Daryl was hurting and she wanted to fix him. 

He shrugged his shoulders. 

“Cause you just… you seem like you have something on your mind.”

“What makes ya say that?” he asked.

“Told you. You remind me of someone I used to know.” She said, a quick smile ghosting over her lips.

“Who?” Daryl asked. 

“My brother.”

Daryl felt a pain shoot through his heart at the words. He pictured a walker wearing Merle’s skin and his chest felt like an invisible hand was squeezing it.

“He dead?”

“Yeah. Not long after… you know after everything. He protected me. Had me hide in a closet and went out to kill the walkers but… he… he didn’t come back. He rode a motorcycle. Y’know. Like you. Was kinda quiet. 

Daryl nodded and bit at a nail. “Well, I’ll protect you now.”

She smiled shyly. “You make a good big brother, Daryl. Did you have any sisters?”

“Naw. Had a older brother. You ain’t nothin’ like him though. That’s a compliment.”

She crumbled the cookie apart in her hands nervously. “I saw your back. You know… if you ever want to talk… like about anything. My brother… he protected me from a lot of things before walkers so…” Denise fell silent. 

Daryl nodded. He knew what that meant. “A doctor, though. You turned out ok.”

“You did, too,” she said. 

“Naw. I ain’t nothin’.”

“That’s not what I see,” Denise said. “Seems to me you’re everything. To Rick. To Glenn and Maggie. Michonne. Carol. God, to Carl and Judith.”

Daryl shrugged and he looked again for the millionth time around the kitchen, trying to find something to talk about. His eyes fell on the sodas. 

“Hope she likes the root beer. Had some orange crush last week but that Jesus asshole put an end to that.”

Denise smiled, her eyes dreamy and aimless. “I think she will. If not.. thought that counts, right?”

“Yeah,” Daryl nodded. He tried to wipe off the dirt smudges his elbows left on the counter, then decided to ask a question that had been swimming in his brain since Denise asked for the sodas in the first place. 

“How did you, like… make that happen?”

“How did I make what happen?” She asked, confused.

“You and Tara. I mean… did you… did you always like girls?”

Denise blushed and drew aimlessly in the cookie crumbs on her plate with a finger. She grinned, memories obviously replaying in her head as she formed an answer.

“No. Never even thought about it before. But…” she shrugged. “I don’t know. I just felt something. And she did. And…” Denise shrugged again. “I just… walked right up and kissed her. And she kissed me back.”

Daryl was watching her closely, wanting to soak up her expertise. “How did you know she’d kiss back?”

“I didn’t. I just wanted her to. And I needed to know. Y’know… know if she would.” Denise had a smile on her face that spoke of easy love and unconditional affection. She wore peace like a comfortable robe in the cold of winter. Daryl wanted to know peace like that. Wanted to know that security of having arms he could hide inside when the rest of the world was too much.

“Daryl,” She said. He looked up, a nail still between his teeth.

“There someone you’re thinking about kissing?”

Daryl shrugged. 

“You have to tell me,” she said excitedly. “I can try to help you.”

Daryl scoffed. “What- are you gonna pass ‘em a note after class?”

Denise laughed. She was clearly becoming more comfortable with Daryl. She liked him. And Daryl has found in this new world, that he wanted to be liked. Wanted to be loved actually. Because if there was one thing he could do well, it was love someone back. 

“Is it someone that you didn’t expect to have feelings for?”

Daryl shrugged. 

“Daryl. Is it Rick?”

“Why the fuck you ask that?” Daryl barked, defensively.

“Cause I’m not blind. I see the way you look at each other.”

“Pfft.” Daryl gave up on the charade. Denise could read him. He could sense that. “Maybe the way _I_ look _him_. Thought maybe… maybe he wanted me. Seems like maybe once.... But,” Daryl shook his head. “I … it’ wasn’t that. He’s with Michonne now. You had to hear about that. Christ half the town saw them half naked.”

Denise picked up the sodas one at a time and put them in the fridge. “He was like that with Jessie, too. Trying to be with her. Heard he kissed her a few times. Not sure Rick understands what he really wants. Just my opinion though. He never looked at either one of them the way he looks at you.”

Daryl picked a cookie crumb off her plate and ate it. “Nothing I can do about it.”

“There _is_ something you can do about. Kiss him.”

Daryl looked at her and rolled his eyes. 

“I’m not kidding, Daryl. Rick is your best friend, right? Your family. You are part of each other. Just kiss him. You know… blow it off as adrenaline from after a run or just being happy to be alive or whatever if he doesn’t kiss back, but I think you might be surprised.”

“I can’t. Michonne-”

“I haven’t seen them together much. You know why? Because Rick is always with you. Going on runs with you. Talking to you about what to do next. Laughing about God knows what as he’s walking down the street with you. If the two of you aren’t with each other, he’s looking for you. I think maybe Michonne was just a… friend. I nice thing to have one evening. He’ll tell you if it’s otherwise.”

Daryl didn’t respond.

“Or you could go on pinning until you die. But wouldn’t it be tragic if something happened to one of you and the last words you heard from him was that it was always you? Always you he wanted?”

After a few minutes of tugging at a loose hem on his sleeve, Daryl looked up. “So just kiss him?”

“Yeah,” she said. “Then come over for cookies and tell me what happened.” 

Daryl stood. “I ain’t eatin’ those cookies no more. I’ll bring dinner next time.”

As he walked out the door with a glimmer of chance in his heart, she shouted. “I’ll test it for rabies first.”

*************  
Daryl walked home slowly in the setting sun. Thinking about what Rick’s lips might feel like on his. Thinking about how he can explain a kiss if Rick pushes him away. Is there a chance he won’t? A chance he’d welcome Daryl’s embrace? Probably not. But the image of a dying Rick and last words like “always” and “waited” and “wanted” haunted him. He trudged up the steps to his shared home and nearly barreled over Michonne as she sat on the porch in the dimming light alone. He was so deep inside his own head he hadn’t even seen her.

“What are you doing out here?” he asked. 

She looked at Daryl then back up at the splash of colors in the sky. “Just bein’ quiet.”

“Surprised you ain’t in bein’... you know loud or somethin’ with Rick.”

Michonne laughed. “Don’t go thinking there’s more than there is. Hard world to live in and a break from it all is a nice thing.”

“So you ain’t in love with him? He’s just a nice damn _thang_? He know that?” Daryl had no idea why he was angry. The part of him that was in love with Rick should be glad, but the friend was worried about Rick’s heart. He didn’t want her to break it. And Rick had a gentle heart. He used it often and it had taken its fair share of abuse already.

“Daryl, I don’t need a man. I don’t want to settle down and play housewife. We both had a bad day. We both were sitting on the same couch. That was it. Of course I love him. I love you. I love Glenn and Maggie.” 

“So he know that or are you breaking his heart?” Daryl had a one track mind. All he cared about was Rick’s safety. Not just his life and his health, but his feelings, his heart. 

“Yeah. He knows,” she said with conviction. “Why?”

Daryl just shrugged, stepped over her and walked inside. Rick was sitting on the couch watching Judith on the monitor. The lovesick hunter kicked at Rick’s shoes. “Move over,” he grunted. Christ, what on earth would Rick even see in Daryl. All the smooth bodies and soft curves he’s been with? Lori. Jessie. Michonne. Daryl was hard and calloused, his voice was as rough as sandpaper and he was caked in dirt like a second skin. 

But Rick smiled, that easy smile of his like it’s the simplest thing he’s ever had to do. Smile. And he handed Daryl the monitor as he sat so close to Rick that their legs touched.

“She’s trying to crawl in her sleep,” he laughed, pointing at the screen. 

Daryl grunted. “‘Nother year she’ll be tryin’ to kick ass up there.”

Rick laughed and dropped his hand on Daryl’s leg like it was the most natural thing in the world. “You bring them sodas to Denise?”

Daryl grunted in the affirmative, his eyes glued to Rick’s hand.

As much as he just wanted to close his eyes and fantasize, enjoy the connection between their bodies, thigh against thigh and Rick’s hand against the hard muscle of Daryl’s leg, he couldn’t. 

“Why ain’t you out there watching the sunset with Michonne?”

Rick looked at Daryl, surprise in his expression and he laughed quietly. “Wasn’t ever about watching sunsets together.”

“Just sex? Really?”

Rick shrugged. “Just long days and…” Rick got lost in the thought and left the sentence hang.

“You like looking at sunsets, though. We watched them together all the time at the prison. Makin’ up names for all the different shades of orange like we’s inventin’ a new box of post-apocalyptic Crayola crayons. Pointing to stars as they started popping out of the sky.”

“Yeah,” Rick said and he rubbed his hand a bit against Daryl’s leg. 

“Well, you like her enough to fuck her. Why ain’t ya just out there lookin’ at the sky with her too?”

“Not the same.”

“What’s not the same?”

“It’s not the same as watching it with you, man.”

Daryl frowned. He tried to replay the last few lines of dialogue in his head. He was so lost. “What does that even mean?”

“Fuck if I know, Daryl.”

They sat quiet a few more minutes watching Judith on the monitor as she finally settled down and fell asleep.

“You got a thing for the doctor?” Rick asked out of nowhere.

“What?! Fuck no, man. She’s with Tara. I mean…. like _with_ her. Like sunset watching with her.”

Rick nodded. “Hard seeing people clamor all over you again. Like the good days at the prison. Everyone loves you here.”

Daryl scoffed at that. “Denise gave me a cookie once and Aaron and Eric fed me spaghetti. That doesn’t equal everyone loves me here.”

“Jesus adores you,” Rick said with what Daryl swore might have sounded like jealousy.

“Don’t even get me started on that asshole,” Daryl said. 

Rick looked at Daryl, holding his gaze. “I think he has a thing for you.” Daryl could feel Rick waiting for a reaction. 

“Whatever, man,” Daryl answered, blushing. 

“It’s ok if that’s what you’re into,” Rick said, still not looking away.

“What? People who call themselves fucking Jesus?”

“You know what I mean,” Rick said. “I think he’s really good looking. I wouldn’t kick him out of bed.”

Daryl looked at Rick with his jaw dropped. “You wouldn’t kick anyone out of bed. That’s what it seems like these days,” Daryl laughed.

Rick took a long slow breath. “Wouldn’t let anybody else back _in_ bed if I found the right person. Just haven’t yet.”

Daryl had zero experience with flirting, but he was becoming fairly certain that this may be what it was. Rick’s hand still on his thigh, sitting close, talking about sex and sunsets. Christ he basically just admitted he’d consider a dude, even if the dude was mother-fucking Jesus.

_Just kiss him. ...wouldn’t it be tragic if something happened to one of you and the last words you heard from him was that it was always you? Always you he wanted?_

Denise’s words rang in Daryl’s ears. The image of Rick dying again was so strong Daryl felt it like an elephant sitting on his chest. He could picture it so easily, all the times Rick was covered in blood and cuts and bruises. It’s one awkward unreturned kiss or never knowing. Ever.

Rick was still facing him, eyes that welcomed Daryl in and offered everything Rick had inside if only Daryl would reach out to accept it. So he did. He reached a hand up and buried his fingers in Rick’s curls. Then he reached up the other hand and did the same. As he held Rick’s head in his hands, he licked his lips. “I miss watching sunsets with you, Rick. Just you and me.” And Daryl leaned in and pressed his lips feather-soft against Rick’s, fully expecting him to rear back.

But Rick didn’t. Daryl kissed him. And Rick slid his hands to Daryl’s waist, parted his lips and kissed Daryl back.


End file.
